LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 44

LADIES' GOSSIP.

• • Never really have we seen (writes a Lonclon society paper) anything bo superb as the Rifts for the heir to the Boni de Castellanes. Even Boni Castellane, who was Uase at 10, .cannot concaal his delight at tho sumptuous welcome prepared for bis first-born. These rffariDgs ara worthy of a king's offspring. Tor example, there is an antique magnifi-cently-chiselled porringer of solid gold heavily encrusted with turquoises and pearls, The gift of George Gould, and purchased for him from a collector at a fabulous price. Howard Gould_send3 an infant's toilet sot three pieces — brush, powder-box, and puff— with rare antique mountings of silver, in which are embedded uncut sapphires and diamond*. Edwin Gould .and Mrs Gonld have sent a euperb silver ewer and basin. An antique spoon, also sent by Howard Gould is a'gem in its way, enamelled in blue •violets' and diamond centres. It bears the inscription, " Sets Z# bien venu," which, freely translated, would mean in English, "Thou ait welcome." AMce Gould sent a dozen gold SDOons of exquisite workmanship for the nursery, each surmounted by the Castellane CI"St. The Marquia Castellane offered a euparb •drinking mug of gold, inlaid with sapphires, which has been handed down for generations to the first grandchild of ths family. Tho Marquise Castellane, according to tradition, gave her son's magnificent christening robe to the mother of his child, and with it a moat •exquitite note of trunks to her "sweet 'daughter for the priceless treasure she was abont to bestow upon her hnsband's family.' 1 .With this touching token the Marquise sent 'her beloved Anna, for hei own use, a satin - covered box containing antique laces of priceless value and belonging to the Castellanes for hundreds of years.

JHJver? thread of the layette came from Helen Gould, the mother-like elder sister, and the best friend the little count has in this world. It is exquisitely dainty— every Btitch seem? to have been the work of a fairy. The flneßt of linen cambric has been used for each garment, the most. dainty and 'exquisite embroidery laces and hemstitching adorn each article. All are packed in a «atm-covered laoe frilled hamper, all blue and iibifce, with the Castellane arms embroidered on a 'flcutcbeon where the basket oloseß. The JOastellane coronet is delicately worked on each tiny garment ; and such quantities ! Surely no child ever made a more fortunate choice of aunts than this lucky little FrancoAmerican. The hamper has within its linings a violet sachet powder whose perfume is Eaintly exhaled as each little object is raised. The little Castellans, as is customary with

the babies of the aristocracy, will be voui au bhuetau blanc — that is to say, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and her colours until it is five years of age. Tais vow is never broken, and the children dedicated to the Virgin wear no colour but her livery of immaculate purity, the blue and white of innocence. These children are supposed to be under the speoial protection of the blessed Mother 1 • . • Marie Jeanne Gornard de Vaubernier, Oorntesse dv Barry, the favourite of Louis XV, erected a monumsut to " Fifi," her pet canary. The monument was designed by Fragouard and modelled by Clodion, both oE them famous seventeenth century artists. It is of stone, and is an excellent work of art. The tomb is surmounted by a recumbent figure of the dead canary, with breast turned up and head thrown back. After five years of life ia luxurious captivity, Fifi developed a craviDg for the ontside world, and one day flew out of an open window. Servants were sent in pursuit, hut an accident caused its death before it ryes captured. The monument is now in the possession of the Musee de Olnny, in Pari?, which possesses a great collection of antiquities and curiosities.

-.- Miss Collins, who recently became Princess Czaykowski, once, so the stovy goes, carried official despatches from tha Emreror of Russia to his Imperial brother of Germany. Clarence Collins, her father, closely ie=sembles Alexander 111, and when in Berlin the two men met. Attracted by the resemblance, the Czir conversed with Mr Collies, and found him an agreeable and well-informed man. He invited him to Moscow, and there showered Imperial attentions upon him. Miss Collins, who accompanied her father, was very popular at the Russian Court. Having to send private despatches to the Court o£ Berlin, the Cz^.r entrusted them to Miss Collins, who safely delivered them at their destination. When the invitations were sent out for the recenb coronation the Dowager -Empress invited Mr and Miss Collins to the festivities by autograph letter. • . • In Home Hindoo households there are rooms known as krodhagarae — apartments with bare walls and no furniture, specially reserved for children when they misbehave. The krodhsgarta is the "chamber of bad humcur," wuich serves the purposes of the corner for naughty children.

• . • The dress of the elderly wife of a city magnate, newly rich, who was presented at a recent Drawing Room, cost oOOOge, and will never bo worn again in the form which the princess saw it. A thousand a year is by no means an unusual dress allowance to the wives and daughters of the ricb. One lady recently expressed her inability to dress properly under £300 a year, and she declared when sable taiis were introduced as an article of dress thßfc she would require £600 more, unless she were to go into society unfit to bfl seen. In tho matter of -shoes, most ladies will have noticed that in the trousseau of Pnncsss Maud over 100 pairs weie provides?. * . • The Mexican lap-dog is so very minute in size as to appear almost incredible to those who hare not actually seen the animal itself. A well-known writer on natural history, speaking of this tiny member of the canine species, says that " it is precisely like those white woollen toy-dogs which sit upon a pair o£ bellows, and when pressed give forth a nondescript sound intended to do duty for a legitimate bark." There is another variety of arcall dogs in China and Japas, which are web-footed, and possess tho peculiarity of having no hair on their skins. • . • The Crown Princess Stephanie, widow of the Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, attracted much attention in Vienna recently by singing in the church at Sasenburg, a suburb of the capital. T'niß was her first sppearance in public. Her voice"* is a contralto.

• . • The choice of white for wedding dresses is comparatively a modern fashion. During the Middle Ages brides wore crimson, and most of the Plantagenet and Tudor queens were merried in this vivid hue, which is still popular in parts of Brittany, where the bride is usually dressed in crimson brocade. It was Mary Queen of Ssots who first changed the colour of bridil garments. At her marriage with the Dauphin of France in 1558, she was robed in white brocade. It was not, however, until qnite the end of the seventeenth century that pure white, the colour hitherto worn by royal widows, became popular for bridal garments in the Home country.

• . • A pretty story, savouring of the romantic, is told in the French press about the Kaiser. Recently his Majesty went to the Berlin barracks alone. The corporal on guard recognised the Kaiser immediately, and gaJuted him. The Kaiser was pkaaeo 1 , and, approaching the soldier, said, " Why do you look so sad, corporal ? " The corporal did not reply. The Emperor then asked if he was disappointed in love. At this the corporal foiled hie tongue, and replied that he wished to marry Marguerite, the daughter of his sergeant-major, but that her father would not give his consent until he became a sergeant. " And do you love her very much?" asked the Kuser. "Oh, yes," was the reply. " Then,' 1 said the Emperor, "go and tell your- future father-ia-law that William II make* you a sorgeani."

• . • In embracing the faith of the Greek Church, previous to her marriage, Princess Alix refused to say, as par ritual: "M i'oimer religion is accursed, and my conversion to the Russian Church is due to conviction that coy own religion is not founded upon the truth.'' Instead she said firmly : '• I join the Greek Caurch inertly that I may be of one faith with my future husband." And the Holy Synod of PP u as«a had to make this highly important concession to the young German girl who not even for the crown of the empire would abandon the religion of her forefathers. • • The German Emperor is fond of light and bright colours, and has a particular dislike to see the Empress in black. . • The making of paper flowers is one of the Duchess of Albany's chief pleasures.

• • Thß correspondence cf Prosper Msriraee, the well-known author, and friend of the Empress Eugenic, has just been published, and, among a number of very carious letters, the following, reUting to Eoglish country life, may prove interesting:— "l go from place to place, and I find everywhere amiable people. Sometimes I live for a week in a princely castle of Scotland, where I have to stoD my earn with cotton wool at diuaer time

to the disgust of the ' belles misses,' but I cannot, no, I cannot, eat my food with a man promenading round the table with a sword at his side and a bladder in his mouth making the most awful noise. Sometimes I am in a simpler, but lovely, mansion ; sometimea in a cottage such as you never saw, exoept at the opera; but, everywhere the cooking Is excellent, despite the calumnies spread in Pari?, and, as the country does not produce much fruit, the tables are always covered with the moot exquisite specimens of them. What I notice iB that the English are always studyiog appearance?. The lords drive you all over their vsab domains with an assumed air of noble indifference ; the squires show yon their hothouses with a well-bidden pride, and everyone is ires bon enfant till dinner time. But as soon as tha gong haa sounded a great change oomes ; everyone sits up and puts on the noblest countenance, the dress coat and the white tie are of a solemn impeccability, and the ico which has been broken all the day long between Iheir good souud Biitish hearts and my light Francb one gcows again thicker than ever, and when you eat. an E-jgliah dinner yon feel as if you had to keep up the appearances at tbe funeral of an old aunt. And how they despise a man who does not know all that ought to be known in England, who shows some surprise or some curiosity, who speaks without thiaking seven times seven, and who lets himself be seen as be is ! Notwithstanding all tho recommendations of my friends, alas, I could not do it well, and all my good resolutions of keeping correct and dignified vanish at the most awkward moments. I scandalise them with my fork, my spoon, my knife, my little storks, and ruy big laugh, and I am most uncomfortable, for when I am gone they are sure to call me a vulgar fellow ."

• . • Woman recently asked its readers to solve the question o£ who is the most popular woman in the kingdom, excluding members of the Royal Family. A scrutiny of the votes received works out as follows : Baronets Burdett-Coutta, Misa Ellen Terry, Madame Patti, the Countess of Warwick, Lady Henry Somerset, the Dacbess of Satherland, Mies Marie Oorelli, the Marchioness of Dufferin, the Countssß Cadog.vn, Mif=s Florence NightiDgale, the Dachess of Portland, the Duchess of Devonshire. • . • The much-travelled Duchess of Cleveland, mother of Lord Rosebery, is anticipating a voyage to South Africa No other duchess living has explored the world so thoroughly, and probably few women of the same age as the duchess would regard so lightly the prospect of a voyage to the Caps

. • Tbiu is how Toni and Papi, two Vienna babies, much of a muchness in size, weight, and squalls, got absurdly mixed the other night, thus causing their papas and mammas no end of a bother. Papi had on the day of that night been baptised, and in his honour hi* direct' progenitors held a baptismal feast, which was kept up till a late hour. Pepi's aunt and uncle, with cousin Toni, were of the party. Now, imagine tho aunt's surprise, on reaching home at midnight with her precious bundle, to find that the contents bore not the slightest resemblance to her own pet treasure," and that her hnsband's nose, eyes, and chin, parpetuated in her child, had vanished. "Maria und Josef!" she Koreamed to her husband. " I've carried off Pepi by mistake." To cab ib back with Pepi was their fi'-at care. Bat, in the interim, P<?pi's parfnts were cubbing it with Tom, taking the houeo-door key along with them. So the parties missed each other, and bravely went on cabbing it to and fro till daybreak, Toai and Pepi sleeping throughout the sleep of the righteous in the arms of their respective aunts. At daybreak the cabs met midway between their respective homeß, ar.d the exchange wes made with no small amount of merriment

• . • The latest and most umqun ornament worn bj fashionable people is the diamond finger-r>ai'. Anyone wishing for a diamond finger nail must firs*; submit t.heir finger ends to special treatment by a jaweller. After the nail is properly hardened a band of spring cold is firmly clamped to the rim. From eacb side of the clamp protrude two smaller band?, benfc to fit the curve of the nails. The two bands meet half -way down the nail, and at their poial of contact the diamond is set. Very flit diamonds are generally used, so as to allow of gloves being drawn on and off without injuring the j-swel. The efiiecr. of this ornament in a ballroom is said to ba very pretty. It is much more effective than a rinp, and not so easily lost.

• . • The death of the yonn? Duchess Decazes, the second daughter, by his last wife, of the late Mr Singer, of sewing machine fame, is universally deplored in Parisian society, of which the young Dachess was one of the most popular and brilliant ornaments. Few American heiresses of this generation have been so absolutely charming as the late Duchesa and her sister, Madam° de Polignac. whoss first marriage with the Piincfi de Scay Montbeliard was so unfortunate. They were not only pretty, bub very talented, and, above all. noted for their kind hearls even ■when children. Their mother — a lady of humble birth— firs*-, met old Singer ( who had r, cheerful way of marrying and divorcing, marrying again and divorcing again) in the studio oE an American artist in the Rue BHlault. where she captivated tho eccentric millionaire not; only by her beauty, but by her grace and charm of manner. This lady (now married — fcr the third time— to Paul Sohege) brought up her children ao Protestants, and with the greatest care, and on the principle on which the Rothashild girls are brought up —namely, absolute simplicity. The late Dachesa Decazes was not ouly a most graceful and loveable woman, but a very talented one, and ber love for music and her proficiency in that art ware well known in Parif, where she aud her sister have long been among the most popular of social leaders. The young' Duke is natnrally overwhelmed with grief. The match was one of love, for the Decazes family is a very rich one.

• . A rich American, it is said, ha 3 just offered Patti a large sura fcr her rich album of autographs, in which are the signatures of all the great singers and composers which the illustrious cantatrice has known duricg her career. The album is in a sumptuous binding, and is closed by a lock which only the diva can unfasten. Ia it appears the names of Mario, Garcia, TambevHk, Faure, Niemann, Grisi, Albani, Cbristine Nil?son, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Auber, Gounod,

Poniatowski, Verdi, &c. The last-named writes of the diva in the following manner : •' D'abord Adelina, eneuifce Adelina, et encore Adolina."

• . • If you want to make your hall look bigger, place a long mirror in a narrow frame on the wall opposite the doorway. On opening the front door the effect will be one of almost infinite space at d openness. • . • From the Middle Ages to thepresentday the highest price paid for silk goods that M. Georges d'Avenel, in- tbe Revue dcs Daux Mondes, has been able to find waß £16 16d a metre given by Louis IV for the cloth-of-gold material for a dressing gown. Last year, however, lha Empress of Germany ordered at Lyons some white silk, with flowers, birds, and foliage in relief, at £24 a yard, fivesizths of the price being the actual value of the raw silk. She intended to make a dreas of it, but it was so beautiful that she uaed ib for a curtain.

• . ■ A csrtain stout lady resolved to consult a physician about her corpulence. The doctor drew up a careful dietary for her. She must eat dry toast, plain boiled beef, and a few other things of the same lean sort, and in a month return and report the result to the doctor. At the end of the time the lady came, and wan so Btoub that she could hardly get through the door. The doctor was aghast.. "Did you eat what I told you 1 " he asked. " Religiously,'' she answered. His brow wrinkled in parplexity. Saddenly he had a flash of inspiration. " Did yon eat anything else 1 " he. asked. "Why, I ate my ordinary meals," said tbe lady. \ • . • Lady Randolph Churchill is described as being one of the most graceful skaters in England. • . • M'sa Ellen Terry always baa a basketful of clothes for the poor in her home in South Kensington, and whon callers come uhe produces the bafk^t and makes them knir, sew, or crochet while they talk.

• . • In most of the recent pictures of the Princess of Wales there is a pretty little deg of the spaniel bread, but of the most diminutive proportions, either in her arms or in her lap. This pet, who has to a great extent usurped the placa of Uie red-brown Chinese dog Plurapy, for so many years the companion of the Princess, goes by the name of Little BiUee, and is ivory-white in colour, his marks beiug a sort of brindle. He spends most of his time on his royal mistress's skirts or in her lap, goes driving everywhere with her, and at night sleeps on his own cushion at the foot of the Princess's bed.

• . • In her book of Irish beauties Mrs Gerard quotes Gladstone's stoxy of the surpassing charm 8 of Mrs Dillon, who bept a f urniehing-goods store on a fashionable street in Dublin. One day the beautiful Duchoas of Rutland, the Viceroy's wife, drove up in a grand carriage, went into the shop, and, looking hard at Mrs D.llon, who was behind the counter, said " Yes, you are the most beautiful woman in trie three kingdoms 1" She then immediately left the shor. 'It was conjugal jsaloasy, ©xcitedjby the Dake's praise of th<3 fair Irishwoman, that occasioned the visit.

• . • Madame Diaz, tho wife of the President of Mexico, is in her thirty-third year. Among her many attainments she speaks English and French with almost equal fluency. A great part of the President's popularity is due to roe high esteem in which she is held by the pc 'plo of Mexico.

.* . The late3t fad of fashionable people i 3 teliing the character by clasped hands. A clasped-hands character specialist says that this means of reading character is easier and more correct than all other waj3. " A woman," he says, " who is frivolous will clasp her hands together with the first finger of the right hand between the thumb and first finger of the left. Butthefirstfingerof theright haud lies between tbe second and third on the left when constancy prevails. Those people who place two fingers of one hand between the thumb and fingers of the other are deceitful, and not to be trusted." It ia said that in a married conpla the one who in clasping hands and interlacing fingers brings tne right thumb nearest the body, with the right fingers correspendingly pl&oed in relation to tbe left fingers, will be the dominant member of that couple.

French Women in Ilusiness.

French ideas follow Parisian bonnets. The French womao, in'securing to Paris tbe sceptre, of Fashion, keeps a wide-world field for French literature. Twenty thousand women are employed iin railway office?, end 60,000 in the postal service. They are noted for despatch in business, punctuality, and politeness. I never s?aw a flirty girl in a French post office, behind a restaurant counter, or at a railway buffet. Tflirty ways and giggling when man come up are thought bad form. A man going into a feminine department at the "Bon Marche," and finding himself among nice-looking girls, is not made to feel as if ho were at Vermsberg. The modest assurance of French girls in discharging business tasks with men is natural. Levity of manner would make people stare. Ido cot say those shop girls are fit to enter the Temple o£ Vesta, but the social role in Franco is not to peer into the hidden life of anyone. Virtue should be its own reward, and vies its own punishment. One hearß of vices that set one thinking of Greek and Roman antiquity, and even Syrian. Bub they are nob thrust in sight, though dealt with by those newspapers which affect literary excellence. When they come before Divorce Court judges they have no publicity for that. What is worst in Paris as a source of corruption ia the brilliant professional beauty. All the servants in the house think her an enviable person. The concierge's daughter watches her closely, and will in time imitate.

The French woman is economical, and lays herself out to spend money to the best advantage. Her whole mind when she is in

a shop is directed to what the ought to buy, and to what degree ib will suit with the situation and surroundings. On the whole, her bent is towards stinginess. Still, tho average woman is not sordid, and there are oooasions on which she spends handsomely. There are great excuses for stinginesi. Debb dishonours. There ia no poor-relief of any consequence. The enormous charity funds of the city of Paris are devoured by inspectors and ether officials. The former too often report in favour of paupers who can afford to soothe itching palms. If, then, economy bo not clearly practised, one riiks finding in oneself an illustration of the Parable ef the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Where the French woman's genius oome in with most advantage to tbe community is in diffusing the artistic gains of the French man. She brings art into everyday life, from the palace to the meanest dwelling. Her eye has geometrical exactness. Notice the difference in tbe folding between chemises laundered and ironed in Paris and in London. French men, if left to themselves, would mostly display their rcsubet'c faculties in public building. The all-diffusing genius of the French woman enables her to stand above the women of all other nations. Leaving as artdiffusicg agents Mdlle. d© Pompadour and Mdlle. dv Barry out of the question, let us glance at the French woman as cook, laundress, searasbresp, femme de chambre, actress. Roman ladies thought nothing more chic than to have Gallic female slaves for tirewomen and hairdressers. The Empress Eogenie really owed tho sceptre of fashion to her dressers. She was a freckled, unkorupfc, and not particularly nice-looking eirl when at the age of 19 she left the Clifton BoardiDg School, where she was educated. The Parisian femmes de chambre put a new face on her. A laundress's workshop, with the freohly-laundered garments hanging from clothes lines, is one of the nicest sights Paris afforde. Masculine genius in the arL world of France is as the arterial system ; feminine geniua as the capillary network of veins that impart the gloss and glow of health to the skin, humid brightness to tbe eye, ruddj colour to lip and cheek, and give agility to the brain. What might I "not write— bad I but space — of the heroism of Frenoh women of the wage-earning class in the Terrible Year ! Parisian Rachels during the lasfc two months of tho aiege oE P^ris lost their children at the rate of 4000 a week. No sound of lamentation was heard. Hearts were breaking, bub sobs did not rise to wails. To have wailed would have been to unman the men. Fireless homes, starvation, danger, sickness were borno cheerfully. — MrsEmilr Crawford, in fci>e W-">:<'v '■•'■"■